Ghost Hunters miss their visit from the 'Ghost of Christmas Past'

Flickr photo by spablab / CC LicenseThe Ghost Hunters 'Ghost of Christmas Past' turned out to be a plant. There is no word as to whether or not it was a Christmas Cactus or your run-of-the-mill poinsettia.

Merry Christmas Ghost Hunters fans. In a TAPS first, the team gave us a half of a Christmas episode in the form of an investigation of the Christmas Inn & Spa in Jackson, New Hampshire. The episode itself ended up being a two-fer, first the Inn and then the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie, New York.

Opening the episode we are merrily traveling over the river (via covered bridge) and through the woods to the Christmas Spa we go in the giant TAPS monster trucks. Giving us the low-down on the location is Amy and she tells us about the farm being built in 1778, being used as a jail and a post office and that the farm was eventually given as a Christmas gift, hence the name. The Inn has had reports of a shadow figure, a female apparition, and room service feeling uneasy in the #12 ‘Drummer's Drumming’ suite. That’s right the rooms are all themed after the 12 Days of Christmas. Clever. No? Oh, wait, maybe that’s the “#12 Fists a-bumping” suite. Ok, maybe not.

Being given a tour by the relatively new owner of the Inn we are told about a ghostly woman going up a set of stairs that are no longer there, another woman walking through the chef and the sound of children playing upstairs in the spa. As the team begins the setup we see Amy teasing Steve when she eats a cookie in front of the camera that she had just setup for him. It was nice to see the team having a little fun with it.

As the investigation begins we join Jason and Grant in the spa and almost immediately Jason gets a person-shaped hit on the thermal camera. Upon further investigation it is discovered that the person is indeed a plant. The oddest bit about this scene however is that we weren’t immediately shoved off to a commercial upon getting the thermal hit. Instead the camera kind of swung around aimlessly while they figured out that it was just a houseplant and then we moved on -- I’m glad to see them trying something new, even if it does still need a little bit of ironing out. As the various teams investigated the Inn they came across a couple more odd happenings, not the least of which was a pretty funny scene of Tango doing a Bruce Lee training video with a coat rack.

The reveal revealed very little other than the fact that Jason actually used the ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse to get out of work. OK, so the excuse was that his dog was very ill and that he needed to be with his family. I’ll have to try that one out on my boss, I’ll let you know how it goes because I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time on my hands once he stops laughing and realizes that I was trying to be serious. But I digress.

The reveal showed a crack (no, Steve did not bend over)-- a wall made a big cracking noise, a couple of footsteps that were so faint that they broke out the headphones for the owner, and a ‘voice’ so low you can’t tell what it is supposed to be saying and it doesn’t happen all the time so Grant says that this is proof that it’s a residual haunting. OK then. As Steve and Grant jumped in the Monster Truck and to the team gave a whistle, the hope of ever finding the ghost of Christmas past faded, sputtered and fizzled.

So, on to the next, we are now transported to the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie, New York. We are told the fort, which was originally a church built in 1772 has a canon ball hole in the molding. How cool is that? The reports from the location are apparitions in the surrounding cemetery, footsteps on the ceiling, organ music and woman screaming in agony in the tower.

Beginning the investigation we are immediately warped back to Christmas when Jason invokes the name of the ‘Holy Mother of God’ in response to hearing what he said sounded like a giggle. Grant ignores Jason’s excitement and gets excited himself over the sound of someone sitting down on the wicker seat of a chair beside him.

Next we find ourselves on the roof of the tower, where, oddly we find Tango and Steve. I don’t know if Steve has managed to get his height phobia under control or if he has since taken some acting lessons and has learned how to fake the bravery. Yeah, I’m betting on hypnosis as well because we’ve all seen those auto loan commercials that he does for that Rhode Island bank so we can debunk the possibility of there having been any acting lessons involved.

In a couple of scenes later in the investigation we are given the gift of Christmas hope. The hope that the TAPS team has gotten back on track. In one scene we see Amy and Adam goofing around and checking out the creepy dolls in the exhibit. It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen the team playing around with people’s stuff and it was kind of nice to see that again. Of course they apologized to the entity for picking on it later, which was nice, odd, but nice. In another scene we see Jason and Grant investigating the tower’s lovely coating of bird and rodent droppings. In a spectacular leap of debunking the guys realize that this could very well be the cause of the sound of a woman screaming. I have to admit it took me a half a minute to realize what they were getting at. In case you missed it, the bird grabs the rat for a nice hot dinner on the go, the rat screams and we have instant ‘woman screaming in agony as she dies in childbirth.’ Awesome and for a nice change from what they’ve been handing us lately, totally plausible. Mythbusters beware, the Ghost Hunters just might be ready to give you a run for your money once again.

The reveal unfortunately, again, not so revealing. During the analysis we are played an EVP that is explained as a voice saying “You,” by the time we make it to the reveal with the client however, the ‘You’ has now morphed into a ‘No’ – which doesn’t exactly bode well for the quality of the evidence if they can’t agree on what is being said. They then play another EVP and don’t even attempt an explanation of what this one is saying.

Grant again deems this spot as a residual haunting but Jason adds that they would need to come back and do more investigating. So once again we are transported back to the Ghost Hunters of the past, with an inconclusive verdict and a request to come back when you know they never will. Perhaps that is what the title of the episode was referring to. That we are doomed to an existence of the Ghost Hunters promising that they’ll be back, but that they never actually do return. Well, except for the Halloween episode where they returned to one of the places that they got absolutely no activity out of in the first place. But again, I digress.

The Ghost Hunters ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ was a nice treat and I’m glad the team gave this one a go. It was nice to see the team having a bit of fun with the investigations once again but the evidence captured was a bit disappointing. Still, I’m willing to give this one 3 Christmas stars out of 5. It definitely is re-watchable despite the lack of the actual ghost in the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ title.

And with that we close out season 6 of the Ghost Hunters. I'll be back sporadically with information about the team and what's coming up for this spring's season 7, so follow me on Twitter and you'll get get a tweet when there is something new to report. In the meantime, I will be reviewing the Ghost Hunters International episodes beginning on January 5th (with a couple of posts leading up to the new season as well). You'll find the Ghost Hunters International stuff over here if you want to relive some of the stuff from last season, including my interview with the newest team co-leader Kris Williams.